Sentell, Todd 1961-

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Sentell, Todd 1961-

PERSONAL:

Born July, 1961, in Atlanta, GA. Hobbies and other interests: Golf, running, Muay Thai kick boxing, boxing.

ADDRESSES:

Home—GA.

CAREER:

Writer. Teaches learning-disabled students in Atlanta, GA. Has worked as a television sports photographer, reporter, and anchor in SC; former director of sales and marketing for The Golf Club of Georgia.

MEMBER:

Golf Writers Association of America, United States Track & Field Association, Atlanta Track Club.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Magazine Association of Georgia award for "Georgia Boys, Masterful Men."

WRITINGS:

Toonamint of Champions: How Lajuanita Mumps Got to Join Augusta National Golf Club Real Easy, Kunati Books (Largo, FL), 2007.

Editor of Southern Literary Review, 2007—. Columnist for Golf Georgia. Contributor to periodicals, including Fairways & Greens, GolfStyles Atlanta, Golf Illustrated, Golf News, Fore! Georgia, Orlando GolfLife, and Atlanta GolfLife.

SIDELIGHTS:

Todd Sentell, a highly regarded golf writer, is the author of the comic novel Toonamint of Champions: How Lajuanita Mumps Got to JoinAugusta National Golf Club Real Easy. "When you grow up in the sixties and seventies in Austell, Georgia, you may find your literary influences to be a funny bunch: Lewis Grizzard, Woody Allen, Monty Python, M*A*S*H," Sentell remarked on the Kunati Books Web site. "In other words, I'm not afraid to tell you that it wasn't the ancient masters that got me all riled up about good writing, but people and shows and scenes and characters that proved to me you could get real, real funny and still send an important message."

Toonamint of Champions follows the efforts of Georgia bank teller Waymon Poodle to fulfill his lifelong dream: playing a round of golf at legendary Augusta National Golf Club, the home of the annual Masters Tournament. Even Waymon's long-suffering girlfriend, Lajuanita Mumps, takes a backseat to his quest, which involves such colorful characters as accountant Emiglio Rafsooliwicki and Augusta chairman Leonard ‘Huge Pecker’ Leboeuf. The author's experience "as ‘the director of sales and marketing for an ootsie-tootsie private golf club’ gives him the background material for carving up golf's sacred rituals and icons of the greens," observed M. Wayne Cunningham in ForeWord Magazine. "His expertise as an established humorist has him operating with wit and polish."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 15, 2006, Bill Ott, review of Toonamint of Champions: How Lajuanita Mumps Got to Join Augusta National Golf Club Real Easy, p. 24.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2006, review of Toonamint of Champions, p. 985.